On November 14, 1889, Nellie Bly, the crusading young female reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s World newspaper, left New York City by steamship on a quest to break the record for the fastest trip around the world. Also departing from New York that day—and heading in the opposite direction by... show more

On November 14, 1889, Nellie Bly, the crusading young female reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s World newspaper, left New York City by steamship on a quest to break the record for the fastest trip around the world. Also departing from New York that day—and heading in the opposite direction by train—was a young journalist from The Cosmopolitan magazine, Elizabeth Bisland. Each woman was determined to outdo Jules Verne’s fictional hero Phileas Fogg and circle the globe in less than eighty days. The dramatic race that ensued would span twenty-eight thousand miles, captivate the nation, and change both competitors’ lives forever. The two women were a study in contrasts. Nellie Bly was a scrappy, hard-driving, ambitious reporter from Pennsylvania coal country who sought out the most sensational news stories, often going undercover to expose social injustice. Genteel and elegant, Elizabeth Bisland had been born into an aristocratic Southern family, preferred novels and poetry to newspapers, and was widely referred to as the most beautiful woman in metropolitan journalism. Both women, though, were talented writers who had carved out successful careers in the hypercompetitive, male-dominated world of big-city newspapers. Eighty Days brings these trailblazing women to life as they race against time and each other, unaided and alone, ever aware that the slightest delay could mean the difference between victory and defeat. A vivid real-life re-creation of the race and its aftermath, from its frenzied start to the nail-biting dash at its finish, Eighty Days is history with the heart of a great adventure novel. Here’s the journey that takes us behind the walls of Jules Verne’s Amiens estate, into the back alleys of Hong Kong, onto the grounds of a Ceylon tea plantation, through storm-tossed ocean crossings and mountains blocked by snowdrifts twenty feet deep, and to many more unexpected and exotic locales from London to Yokohama. Along the way, we are treated to fascinating glimpses of everyday life in the late nineteenth century—an era of unprecedented technological advances, newly remade in the image of the steamship, the railroad, and the telegraph. For Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland—two women ahead of their time in every sense of the word—were not only racing around the world. They were also racing through the very heart of the Victorian age.Advance praise for Eighty Days “What a story! What an extraordinary historical adventure!”—Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire “Vividly imagined and gorgeously detailed, Eighty Days recounts the exhilarating journey of two pioneering women, Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland, as they race around the globe. Matthew Goodman has crafted a fun, fast, page-turning action-adventure that will make you wish you could carry their bags.”—Karen Abbott, author of American Rose “What a delight to circumnavigate the globe with pioneering journalists Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland. The two women carve out an adventurous path in a constrained Victorian world that cares as much about their marriage prospects and the number of trunks they pack as about their trailblazing career aspirations. Matthew Goodman’s lively writing and detailed research bring the story of these two remarkable women to life as they race around the world, full steam ahead, giving us an intimate look at a late-nineteenth-century world that is suddenly shrinking in the face of rapid technological change. Only one of these two remarkable women can win the race around the world, but the reader of this fascinating tale will be certain of a reward.”—Elizabeth Letts, author of The Eighty-Dollar Champion

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This book was a delightful journey around the world with the lovely Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland. It was the first book in a very long time that retained its five-star rating almost from the very beginning. While it does have some flaws, I adored the storytelling style and history that was cover...

Nelly Bly was, by 1889, already rather famous in New York as not only a muckraking investigative journalist, an unusual enough occupation for a woman of her day, but a very good one. In particular she was well known for spending 10 days undercover as a patient in a womens mental asylum, and exposing...

Eighty Days is an engrossing tale of two women’s journey in an attempt to beat the fictional journey of Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg. The two women are Nellie Bly, a reporter for the now defunct New York World newspaper, and Elizabeth Bisland, a columnist for The Cosmopolitan magazine; yes the same o...

A sad fact of life, is that we get books about the =great things that were done. For the most part these people if unlucky get to keep living after that shining moment. And that the sad part of our tale. First off this is a non fiction book that read faster and more lively then many contemporary n...

As a woman who has done a lot of solo traveling I have always admired Nellie Bly as a pioneer of female world travel. Ever since I first did a book report about her in the third grade I have been interested in her, and I was eager to read this book about her race around the world, especially when I...

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